The show was an attempt to copy the style of the Beatles in the 1965 movie "Help!" (which came out just a year before NBC brought "The Monkees" to the airwaves), with its wacky mix of absurdist slapstick comedy and pop/rock music.Truth be told, Mickey, Davy, Mike & Peter actually displayed more on- screen charisma than the Beatles had in that particular film (which wasn't exactly the high point of their career). Both the show and the movie borrowed heavily from the Marx Bros' sense of lunacy, but neither quite managed to capture Groucho's wry, biting humor (although they certainly tried).The show initially found its niche with teens & tweens at the time who were too young to fully embrace the Beatles, but who liked pop-rock and wanted some group to get excited over. They were, to some extent, a safe embodiment of the '60s social revolution, at a time when long hair was still unacceptable in many parts of the country, and the peace sign competed with "Love It or Leave It" stickers.It's easy to forget just how big they were at their prime. At one point (in 1967), the Monkees actually outsold the Beatles and the Rolling Stones combined.I've seen Dolenz and Jones in concert together on several occasions over the years, in various reincarnations of the Monkees, and despite early critics' claims, they actually are very solid entertainers - and the Monkees' collection of songs is a great one -- with hit after hit.The show? Well, it was successful because of the personalities of the four leads, and the music, of course - almost in spite of the sometimes dreadful efforts at comedy. Like its inspiration, "Help!", some episodes of the show can be almost painful to watch... if it wasn't for the music, and the winking sense that Davy, Mickey, Peter & Mike were well aware of the inanity of what they were doing.

The Monkees, the television series, is a landmark one, despite it lasting only two seasons on the NBC Television network. That's because it directly lead to the what we all know as the MTV concept some thirteen years or so later: stylish videos with quick cuts, special effects, constant motion and having those sequences set to songs.Sometimes suggested as an attempt to "cash in" on the insane popularity of The Beatles, The Monkees: Davy Jones, Micky Dolenz, Michael Nesmith and Peter Tork, were collectively referred to by some of the harsher critics of the day as "the Pre-Fab Four," a play on the "Fab Four" reference to the Beatles. The Monkees were a musical group created specifically for the show, which some felt made them inauthentic.The problem of the program is that it wasn't a video; it was a situation comedy, and a lot of the time the episodes were, if we're kind about it, a little light on scripting. In fact there was at least one episode without any script at all, and a few times where they didn't completely fill out their half-hour and had to pad the episode with other elements.What that meant was that the series was often an unsatisfying experience as a standard sitcom, because the plots frequently were weak or non-existent! Additionally, when there were solid scripts, they were pretty much lifted from old movies, Vaudeville acts, or parodied other programs being aired at the time - most of which wasn't terribly inspired and often wasn't that funny.To the good, they did utilize the "psychedelic" elements of the day, with brilliant colors, sets and costumes, which is why their title sequence is still a timeless classic. The visuals were spectacular.Also, The Monkees, the musical group, had some pretty decent songs (after all, the writers of their tunes were people like Neil Diamond and Carole King!), and those performances were usually the highlight of every episode. If the scripts could have equaled the songs, this show would have been a smash.But to be fair, the era of the 1960s was a very odd combination of a lot of factors, not the least of which was drugs (hinted at but never directly suggested here), politics (which was emboldened by the programs like "The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour) and youth and the pop culture movement. And certainly all of this had an impact on the the process of creating the program and the areas covered by the episodes.In its way, The Monkees captured a lot more of the flavor of that time than nearly every other entertainment program in that tumultuous age and it certainly deserves credit for that.

"An American version of 'The Goodies' starring the American version of the Beatles" would be a pretty apt way of summing up "The Monkees", a delightfully offbeat television show that I first recall seeing, in rerun form, back in the late '70s (I wasn't even thought of when it first came out). Being a fanatical metalhead, I must admit that the music of the title group doesn't do a lot for me, but this hasn't prevented me from enjoying every other aspect of the above show, given how truly bizarre the last thing is. It's also not hard to see, from watching reruns of "The Monkees", just why the title group was so popular back when the aforementioned show first came out. They were four fairly good-looking young men who came across, in their TV programme at least, as genuinely nice guys. (Ugh! I can't believe I just said that! May the gods of METAL forgive me!)Of all the episodes of "The Monkees" that I remember seeing, the one that had the most lasting effect on me was undoubtedly "Captain Crocodile". The cream pie scene at the beginning of that one really burned itself into my subconscious; seldom have I seen a more bizarre example of public humiliation on television. All I want to know is, where can I get one of those cute little leafy caps that the Monkees were forced to wear in that scene? They were cool.

The Monkees was one of the most unique television shows ever created! The show featured great music and comedy that had people laughing for hours. All four of the guys were extremely talented and no one else could have taken their place. The show should be run more often so that today's generation of kids can enjoy them too.